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IAAF President Diack starts 2014 with a bang

- Read on for English and French language versions of this story- La traduction française suit le texte anglais

IAAF President Lamine Diack started 2014 with an extensive schedule of activities in the southern Chinese city of Xiamen, home to the Xiamen International Marathon, the first IAAF Gold Label Road Race of 2014.

The first day of the New Year saw President Diack meet with representatives of the Chinese media, giving interviews to five major national newspapers and press agencies, as well as two national TV stations.

The topics covered focused especially on the development of road running in China, where there has been phenomenal growth in this discipline over recent years. In the past five years alone, the number of city marathons in China has progressed from barely a dozen to 46, with more anticipated to join them in the years to come.

“In the USA, there are over 200 marathons for a population of 300 million, so with a population of around I.5 billion Chinese, there is space for many more races. The fact that the Chinese government and local civic authorities are committed to working together with the Chinese Athletic Association to support this development is a very positive sign for our sport,” said President Diack.

“China has great potential to develop distance runners. There have been great Chinese distance runners in the past, and there can be more in the future; what is needed is to identify talent at an early age and then ensure that these athletes are given the best possible coaching to take them to the highest level. Having athletics in all school programmes is the start of the path to success,” he added.

In the afternoon of 1 January, President Diack met with Mayor Liu Keqing, the leader of the Xiamen local government and other leading Chinese politicians and sports administrators, including the President of the Chinese Athletic Association and IAAF Council Member Zhaocai Du and his long-standing friend and fellow IOC Member Dr Ching-kuo Wu, President of the International Boxing Federation.

The evening ended with the presentation to Mayor Liu of the IAAF Gold Label for the 2014 Xiamen International Marathon and an IAAF plaque of recognition.

Normally staged on the first Saturday of January, the Xiamen International Marathon moved this year to Thursday 2 January.

The race was started by President Diack, who later presented medals to the winners and also handed awards to the winners of a children’s’ painting competition which had the subject of ‘Marathon – Run for Love’.

President Diack will leave Xiamen on Friday, travelling to Beijing and Tokyo for additional meetings.